­1ISSUE # 221 July-August 2010

Check out the full schedule and register for classes at

www.bakewithzing.com

www.zingermansroadhouse.com

Deli TasTIngs Upstairs at the Next Door

Stop by the Creamery Cheese Shop734.929.0500 • 3723 Plaza Drive

www.zingermanscreamery.com

422 Detroit Street, Ann Arbor MI 48104Deli: 734.663.3354 (DELI),

Next Door: 734.663.5282 (JAVA)

Roadhouse Special Dinners are 5-course family-style affairs with a little history and a LOT of food featuring writers, chefs, authors and more from our own community and all around the country.

3723 Plaza Drive734.761.7255

HAnds-oN baking clASseS

For reservations to all events stop by 2501 Jackson Ave. or call 734.663.3663 (FOOD)

Everything's Better with Bacon TastingWednesday, July 7 • 7-9pm$30 in advance / $35 at the door.

This is a tasting for the ‘pork’ at heart. Some people call it the fifth food group; Zingerman's co-founder Ari Weinzweig says "bacon fat is the olive oil of North America." At Zingerman’s we’ll show you that it tastes amazing and can be used in almost anything. We seek out the best bacon there is. Come spend an evening with Ari, tast-ing, learning and making some bacon history. Be sure to get your name on the list for this one – it’s not to be missed!

The Chocolate Lady’s FarewellThursday, July 15 • 7-9pm $30 advance/ $35 at the door

After five years as the Deli’s Chocolate Lady (aka, the best job in the world), Duff is passing the torch to a new chocolate connoisseur. In her last tasting, Duff will give you a briefing on the state of chocolate in the world today, share her Top 10 choco-learnings and reveal her all-time favorite sweets. There will be sweet and savory, classic and zany, chocolate and candies – all of the treats that our Chocolate Lady can’t live without.

Vinegar MagicWednesday, July 28 • 7-8:30pm$20 in advance / $25 at the door We are bringing back Jaime the vinegar maven for a special night of vinegar magic. There will be no rabbits coming out of a hat nor people sawed in half, but what will be done with vinegar and food will be magic to your palate. Walk away with sure-fire ways to amaze your friends and change your cooking forever. Her tastings always sell out so sign up early.

Italian CheeseWednesday, August 11 7-9pm $20/ in advance; $25/ at the door

The world wouldn’t be the same without Italian cheese! Tom will take you on a trip around Italy to sample some forgotten gems and offer some clarity to some of the big names. You won’t want to miss this one.

Deceit, Bloodshed, and Addiction: The History of Tea through British ImperialismWednesday, August 18 • 7-9pm$20/ in advance; $25/ at the door

Tea arrived in Amsterdam in 1610 and took an-other fifty years to arrive in London. By 1751, the British were drinking two cups a day on average. Today tea is enjoyed world-over as a beverage second only to water. The story of tea’s rise to dominance is not a happy one, but illustrates how a commodity product can dras-tically change the political and socioeconomic landscape of the world.

Come join us as we taste the teas that changed history, from the Opium War to the coloniza-tion of India. This will be the traditional British tea tasting you’ve all been waiting for, taught through the vantage of a geeky history major.

The Inside Scoop on Italian Olive OilWednesday, August 25 • 7-9 pm$20/ in advance; $25/ at the door

Can’t afford a tour of Italy? Even if you can and don’t have the time. . . . Then come spend an evening with us as we tour the flavorful foods of south Italy. We will taste our way through the terroir and varietals that make Italy one of the most prolific countries for olive oil. It’ll change your opinion about olive oil from here on out!

Piazza Zingermanza 2010Saturday and SundayAugust 14 & 15 • 11am-3pm Italian Street Fair, FreeOur annual August tradition of transforming the Deli’s Patio into an Italian Street Food Fest is one of the highlights of the year. Find out more on page 7.

7th Annual Taste of Tantré Thursday, August 19, 6-9pm • Big Top Tent$40/party

This is the culinary event of the summer! For the 7th year in a row we are inviting local food lovers to help us complete the farm-to-table circle and enjoy the best food of the season elbow-to-elbow with the people who grew it – the folks from Tantré Farm. An early sell-out–sign up now! For more details, see page 7.

“Second Saturday” Tasting! July 10 and August 14 11 am-noon • Free!

Join us each month for an open-to-the-public, no-reservation-required cupping. Zingerman's Coffee Com-pany managing partners Allen and Steve give a tour of the operation, sample new arrivals with guests, and explore the world of coffee from seed to cup.

Fruit Tarts ClassTues., August 3 • 5:30-9:30pm • $100We’ll show you how to make the pate sucree tart shells and vanilla pastry cream and teach you how to arrange the fruit in an artful way. You'll leave class with a couple recipes and one large fruit tart you made in class.

Proud to be an American (Cheese!)Sunday, July 18, 4pm • $25 per person See page 10 for details.

Mozzarella-Heirloom Tomato Summer Celebration!Sunday, August 15, 4pm$25 per person. See page 10 for details.

Creamery Tours

Every Sunday • 2pm • $5/personReservations are encouraged.Please call 734.663.3400

to save a seat. See our full schedule at

www.zingermansdeli.com

3723 Plaza Drive • 734.929.6060www.zingermanscoffee.com

See page 10 to find out about other events and exciting things going on at Zingerman's Coffee Company.

Join us for our upcoming Customer Service Express Workshop, July 14, 2010! For info, see back cover.

Annual BBQ DinnerTues. July 6 & Wed. July 7 • 7pm • $45/dinner

Eight years after he visited the Roadhouse (before it opened) to teach the traditional Eastern North Carolina whole hog bar-

becue style we still use today, Ed Mitchell returns. He and Chef Alex

will spend three days preparing for a two-day feast of traditional barbecue styles from all over the

country. You can count on really great ingredients,

like grass-fed meats man-aged by Cornman Farms (our very own farm in Dexter, MI), plenty of local vegetables, and all your favorite fixin’s.

Everything's Better with Bacon DinnerWed., July 14 • 7pm • $45/dinner

We’ve pretty much tried just about everything and discov-ered that bacon is one of our favorite, full-flavored ingredients. We should know – we wrote the book on it! Join us for a dinner, featuring bacon in almost every course – even dessert. Chef Alex will create a menu using Ari’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon as a starting point. Ari will share stories of bacon, writing, cooking and eating.

Cornman Farms Dinner #1: From the Soil to SupperTues., July 27 • 7pm • $45/dinner

This dinner celebrates the earli-est harvest including first-of-the-season tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, spring carrots, new potatoes and even turnips.

3rd Annual Maryland Crab FeastSun, August 8 with seatings at 3pm & 6pm [Cost will be determined by market price]

Chef Alex cooks up plenty of Maryland Blue crabs and lots of customary sides. Join us for this traditional East Coast-style summer feast!

#92#90

#91 See page 6 for more information about our annual Cornman Farms Harvest Dinner series!

#93

ISSUE # 221 ­2

July-August 2010

Even after doing it for nearly three decades now, I really do love

my job. And I love it especially when we can bring together all the things that are high on my life lists—great food, great history, great people and contributing to a great

cause. Which is why this olive oil project is so close to my

heart. The pun actually wasn’t intended when I said that — it just

came out while I was writing. But it’s too apt for me to ignore the serendipity; as with most everything about this entire endeavor, the universe seems to have come together in surprising, helpful, healthful and very productive ways. And, I believe, the world and a fair few people’s lives will be better for it.

The story of this oil actually starts here in Ann Arbor, early in the 20th century when A. Walter Hewlett, M.D., left San Francisco after the big earthquake to become one of the youngest medical professors in U of M history. An early advocate of the use of the electrocardiogram, he and his family lived over on Cambridge Street in Burns Park. In 1916 the Hewletts headed back to Palo Alto where A. Walter took a position at Stanford. In the moment I guess it was just one more family of a nice young professor spending some years here in Ann Arbor and then moving on. But like so many folks who leave Ann Arbor, the Hewlett Family’s connection to the town continued long after the family returned West.

While A. Walter is well known in the world of cardiology, it’s his son, William Hewlett, who made Hewlett a household name in the U.S. Bill opted not to pursue medicine, instead studying electrical engineering at Stanford. After graduating, he joined with his friend and fellow student Dave Packard to start a small company in the back of the latter’s garage. The story of the Hewlett-Packard name is that the pair flipped a coin to see whose name would go on the left side of the hyphen. Their initial investment apparently was just a little over $500. Their history as electronics innovators is long and well documented and most of the electronics they invented and brought to market are sort of over my history-major’s head. Let’s just sum it up here by saying that they bootstrapped an electronics start-up toward the end of the Great Depression and led their company to become one of the greats of the 20th century.

While HP today is a massive multinational with its own issues, I’m more interested here in the company in its start-up and prime years. While I’m not an HP expert, the company was celebrated for its culture and for its community giving. To quote Bill Hewlett, the HP Way is “a core ideology ... [which] includes a deep respect for the individual, a dedication to affordable quality and reliability, a commitment to community responsibility, and a view that the company exists to make technical contributions for the advancement and welfare of humanity.”

­Its­basic­tenets­are:

•­­ We­have­trust­and­respect­for­individuals.

•­­ We­focus­on­a­high­level­of­achievement­­­­­­­and­contribution.

•­­ We­conduct­our­business­with­uncompromising­­ ­­ integrity.

•­­ We­achieve­our­common­objectives­through­­ ­­ teamwork.

•­­ We­encourage­flexibility­and­innovation.

Without worrying about all the vagaries of organizational life and the economic and electronic ups and downs in the years since the founding partners passed on, you can see why we have a high affinity for what they were after.

Walter Hewlett, the second oldest of Bill’s kids, was born during the early years of HP. The man has many reasons to be recognized, really probably the least of which would be that his father started one of the world’s most famous companies.

If I have the history straight, Walter got a B.A. in physics from Harvard and then two master’s degrees, one in operations management and the other in engineering. He also has a degree in musicology and has done a lot of work blending music and computers. He plays ten instruments, including his current gig as the cellist in a local orchestra in Palo Alto. Just in case you thought Walter was always studying, you should know that he used to run extensively and had pretty good times in the Boston Marathon back in his day.

I think it’s safe to say I haven’t met too many people with his rather varied and high achieving background. I don’t know him yet as well as I hope I will in the years to come, but Walter Hewlett is clearly a special person. I’m sure he’s financially very well off but you wouldn’t know it from meeting him. From what I’ve experienced in my limited time with him, he’s a pretty darned down-to-earth, smart, and generous guy. He showed up at the Deli on a cold weekday winter morning in a simple flannel shirt and jeans. Looking back at what I put down a paragraph or two ago, he basically seems to have internalized the “HP way” his father co-founded. Everything on that list is well in line with what I’ve experienced working with him over the last six months. His passion, his integrity, his drive to do something special . . . all contribute to the uniqueness of this special project.

In theory, having done all that in the first 65 or so years of his life would, I’m sure, qualify Walter to sit around doing nothing more than listening to some good classical music or uncorking a nice bottle of wine. But like most every high-achieving person I’ve ever met, his natural inquisitiveness and desire to do special things haven’t been short-circuited (sorry couldn’t resist the electronics pun) by success. To the contrary, I might be projecting, but I’d guess the more good things the man does, the more he’s driven to go out and help make more good things happen. Which is how he got going with the olives.

A few years ago, looking for something special to do on the ranchland he owns in central California, he decided to raise olives for oil. That’s a bit more challenging than those of us who aren’t fully familiar with the landscape of the area might first realize. Unlike so many of the well-known California oil producers who are up in Napa and Sonoma, Owens Creek is located in Mariposa County, in the Sierra foothills of Yosemite National Park, right in the middle of the state. “I wanted to do some high-end food. The first thing I thought of was wine. Turns out it’s not a good region for wine. The ranch was mostly just rangeland, but I knew this was good olive tree country, better than some of the other places that they’re growing this stuff. My big challenge was to find water. Everyone said I’d never find enough water. I got the geologist out here but he didn’t find anything. Then I got one of those guys with the stick. They call them ‘dowsers’ or ‘water witches.’ This 85-year-old guy named Javier came out with his sticks and in a day he found water all over the place.” The olive trees have been doing well ever since!

Owens Creek is a rather modest production by modern California standards, about 5,000 trees. All are from straight Italian rootstock, not hybrids. The trees are grown with old-style wide spacing — by contrast, most of the new farms (the ones that are producing big quantities at least) are planting much more intensively. Olives are handpicked and pressed within 24 hours. Because it’s hotter up where Owens Creek is, Walter’s oil is one of the first into the press each fall. “These young trees are like teenagers,” Walter says. “They’ve gotta be pruned a lot.” It’s not just something to do — the man really does love olive oil. “It’s something we’ve been deprived of as a country,” he told me when he was here last winter.

Please know though that the oil in this bottle isn’t here just because it’s supporting a good cause, nor because I like the story of Hewlett-Packard. It’s very good oil. It has already won awards from the California Olive Oil Council even though Walter’s trees are only at the very beginning of their producing years. The oil we’ve chosen to get this project off the ground is from fruit of Sicilian varietals—Ogliarola Barese, Biancolilla, Cerasuolo, and Nocellara Del Belice.

Its flavor is full without being overpowering, smooth but still notably peppery at the finish. It’s got really nice pleasantly pungent herb notes straight up front, and then moves gently but firmly around the entire flavor spectrum. Good and green, it’s pleasantly lively on the palate, firm, grounded, but not at all out of control! I guess you could say that it sort of resembles the man who makes it. And that’s a good thing.

Speaking­of­good­.­.­.­$4­from­the­sale­of­every­bottle­of­the­Owens­Creek­Olive­Oil­will­go­directly­to­fund­research­at­the­U­of­M’s­Cardiovascular­Center.­

I don’t think I need to go on at length here about how much the research helps us all. Dr. Kim Eagle, who is the Albion Walter Hewlett Professor of Internal Medicine and one of the physician-leaders of the Cardiovascular Center at U of M (the CVC) said, “The opportunity for the CVC to partner with Walter Hewlett and his family is very meaningful to us. The project surrounding Owen’s Creek Olive Oil is especially appropriate, given our commitment to not only treat heart disease effectively, but also to promote ways for our communities to prevent heart disease. By creating a connection between Owens Creek, Zingerman’s and the Cardiovascular Center, we are promoting heart health, sustainable high quality agriculture, and a partnership of three fine entities that care for our communities, our employees, and our planet.”

Having had a chance to get to know Dr. Eagle a bit over the last year, I will say that all those same qualities of driving for excellence, caring, and giving that I’ve listed about Walter Hewlett hold true for Dr. Eagle as well. While I know he’s long been a big advocate of olive oil for its cardiovascular benefits, I have a feeling his appreciation for the flavor of the oil has gone up a lot while working on this project; he let me lead him, his wife and the Hewletts through a tasting of ten different oils at the Deli last spring. “Olive oil,” he added, “is delicious, life-sustaining for the heart, and in this case, each bottle consumed helps save a life through investment in important research into how best to prevent heart disease.”

True enough—this is one of those rare opportunities to eat well, help your own health and that of others all in one fell swoop by the olive oil shelves in the Deli. That’s a lot of positive congruity all in one little Ann Arbor-based bottle. If you like good olive oil and you’d like to support the work of the Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan, please consider buying a bottle of this special oil.

For maybe the first time in history, everyone in Ann Arbor can happily say “Go Blue!” and “Go Green” (as in “good olive oil!”) with a big smile!

Deli sandwich of the MonthJuly:­"The Leonidas 5000"­This custom BLT is the favorite sandwich of Deli veteran Leonidas (Leo) Vasquez, who holds the honor of being the best bread slicer we’ve ever had on the Sandwich Line. In fact, Leo loves slicing bread so much that we’ve nicknamed him “The Leonidas 5000” – our bread-slicing machine.

Strips of crispy bacon, thick slices of American cheese, crunchy cucumber, lettuce and tomato piled on toasted and buttered Rustic Italian bread.­$11.99/one sizeAugust:­“Becky’s Remarkable Replacement”This is a spin on our classic Reuben created by Deli staffer Becky Ng, who came up with the great idea of subbing our amazing all-beef hot dog for corned beef! It is so delicious, that even the most serious Reuben aficionados at the Deli are willing to break with tradition for a bite of this!

Our juicy, jumbo (1/4#) all-beef hot dog, dressed with the terrific trinity of Reuben accompaniments – sauerkraut, melted Switzerland Swiss cheese and our housemade Rus-sian dressing. Served on a Zingerman’s Bakehouse bun.

$7.99/one size

$4­From­Every­Bottle

Sold­at­Zingerman's­Deli,­Roadhouse­and­­

www.zingermans.com­supports­­

Healthy­Hearts

­3ISSUE # 221 July-August 2010

Frantoio­from­OlaveThe latest bottling, from the summer 2009 harvest (since Chile's in the southern hemisphere, they pick in summer, not fall, like the northern hemisphere oil mak-ers) is a big oil. It has a wonderful aroma that reminds me of almonds and a really beautiful bitterness in the finish that may catch you with a punch of late breaking pepperiness. To me it has the same sort of appeal of the bitter end of dark chocolate. It's lively, engaging, intriguing. Not strong but vital, alive. My mouth tingles long after I’ve finished eating it.This product is certified organic.

Casados­from­OlaveExtremely limited one-time-only blend.

Working with master olive oil blender Elvio Olave, we got a little creative and came away with this unlikely marriage of flavors from opposite ends of the spectrum. Only a small amount of this organic oil was produced and we bought all of it. Grab yours while you can.

Left unfiltered, the oil is bold but balanced and is the rare specimen that can stand up to big flavors like pork, beef and roasted vegetables. It’s a great time for all those things now, so dig in.

Peranzana­from­Maria­ColonnaWe looked long and hard for an oil to call our own, and we finally chose this one. Zingerman’s Olive Oil is made by Marina Colonna on her estate in the Molise, a little over 100 miles due east of Rome. Made from hand picked Peranzana olives pressed the same day they’re taken from the tree, this oil is huge-ly flavorful.

The latest vintage, harvested and pressed in fall 2009, has a pleasing green apple-y aroma with notes of to-mato. Its lively olive flavor hints of freshly cut grass and leaf, with a whisper of fruitiness. It finishes with that great green olive bitterness and a bit of a peppery kick. It’s excellent on just about everything—salads, soups, seafood, steaks, beans or, of course, bruschetta.

Zingerman's­Travel­OilOur Tuscan friend, Sr. Grappolini, blends an array of Italian extra-virgin olive oils on his estate to create this great introductory oil. I can think of a hundred reasons to give this oil away—for one, the cartoon label de-signed by us makes it a lot of fun—but you'll definitely want to think about keeping a bottle for yourself. The smaller size and lower price will let you add it to your olive oil arsenal without the expense of buying a big-ger bottle.

The flavor of this 2009 harvest oil, the latest pressing from last fall, has a nutty, grassy aroma. It's lightly but-tery in the beginning but builds to a bitter, peppery fin-ish. Great for summer salads.

Salad NiçoiseTry­this­salad­as­the­centerpiece­of­a­nice­summer­meal.­­We­suggest­making­it­with­the­Owens­Creek­Olive­Oil.

1 pound very small potatoes, preferrably heirloom halved or quartered if larger, to equal 2 cups

4 ounces French green beans, trimmed

1 ounce mixed salad greens [2 cups, loosely packed]

1 (4-ounce) can Italian-style oil-packed tuna

4 Roma tomatoes, cored and quartered

1 cucumber, peeled, quartered and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

4 large hard-boiled eggs

10 Niçoise olives

Aged red wine vinegar to taste

Olive oil to taste

Course sea salt to taste

Freshly ground pepper to taste

4-8 anchovies [optional but highly recommended]

Steam potatoes in their jackets until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, steam or parboil the greens for 3-4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain, rinse with ice-cold water and drain again.

Arrange all the salad ingredients on platter: start with the greens; top with tuna, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, eggs, green beans and olives.

Dress with vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. If you like, top with the anchovies. Then sit in the sun with a friend, eat and enjoy!

Zingerman's Private Label Olive Oils

Taste them all at Zingerman's Deli! Also available for purchase

at www.zingermans.com or by calling 888.636.8162 For more information about the University of Michigan

Cardiovascular Center, visit: http://www.med.umich.edu/cvc/about/choose.html

Check out details for our upcoming Olive Oil Tasting at the Deli on August 25 on page 1.

recipe­from­­Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating­­by­Ari­Weinzweig

ISSUE # 221 ­4

July-August 2010

Over the last ten or fifteen years we’ve seen increasing support for the idea of sustainable agriculture. While we’ve got a long way to go before it’s a widespread reality, many organizations are working in more consciously and ecologically sound ways than they ever have before. With that in mind I’ve spent a fair bit of time of late pondering the idea of sustainability, not just in the critical environmental context, but in a broader business sense.

Leaving Our World BetTer OfF ThAn We Found ItWhile there have been many formal and legal definitions of sustainable agriculture in recent years, the one that’s stuck in my head came from something I heard about twenty years ago at one of the hundreds of food-focused conferences I’ve been to. I can’t really remember anymore who said it, so I apologize for not being able to give proper credit. It was early in the move toward organics. Someone on one of the panels was a grower and he was responding to challenges from folks in the audience who were asking about the higher price of organic produce. What he said was that when we, as consumers, purchased industrially produced foods we were really paying only a portion of the full price; there were significant costs still to be paid, for things like restoring the soil and cleaning up the environment. In essence our initial purchase was like a down payment, with the full bill to come due later on and with a huge interest rate, too.

By contrast, he went on, when we purchased sustainably raised food, the price we paid was all-inclusive. Rather than depleting natural resources and leaving less for those who would come later, the soil in which these sustainably-produced products had been grown was left at least as good—and often better—than it had been when the farmer started working it.

The idea of business sustainability is, to me, about taking this concept and applying it to all elements of our organization. The results should be similar to what that farmer described: we should leave the world around us a better place than how we found it.

We’ve actually built this notion into our long-term vision for Zingerman’s. I admit to having a bit of hesitation to actually state this out loud—inevitably we’ll fall short in any number of ways in our efforts to make this happen. But if we don’t commit to making it a reality, it’s safe to say that we’re not even going to get close. To put things in context, I should say too that this isn’t really a very radical departure from what we did in our first twenty-five years. But as with so much organizational evolution, it’s about taking something we’ve long worked at and stating it as an overt commitment, with clear guidelines for ourselves of how and what it really means in day to day life, not just an ad hoc thing that sort of happens.

The idea of seeing business in a sustainable context like this is still sort of new to me, so I’m sure I’ll adjust my thinking as we go, and as I gather input from others who do similar work. But here are some of the basic components of what I mean. Sustainability isn’t just about soil or air; it’s also about staying in business, staying alive, staying engaged, doing good things for a long period of time, all in a way that’s rooted in the values and views that we hold dear.

Staying in BusinessGood intentions alone aren’t enough to build a sustainable

business—you have to be financially viable, too. Which I guess points to an essential aspect of what it means to be a sustainable business: you have to actually stay in business for a long period of time. While the glamour usually goes to the new idea and the new startup—and more power to ‘em—I think it’s far more challenging to actually stay in business and do so in a way that’s rewarding for all involved.

That idea stands in pretty sharp contrast to the prevailing reality of the business world. One thing I’ve come to realize over the years is that most businesses are not flourishing. A handful thrive, others survive, and the vast majority are actually in some stage of going out of business.

Paying the Full Price Up FrontI think that this idea of staying in business bleeds into a topic that hardly anyone ever really wants to talk about—charging enough for our products for our business to actually be financially viable over the long term. The funny thing about this is that even in the world of sustainable food production there are still a whole lot of folks pushing for ever lower prices. Which is certainly their prerogative. It’s not like I’m an advocate of raising prices on principle. Nor have I ever thought that life is all about maximizing your financial return. And I definitely don’t think higher prices should be used to cover up inefficiencies.

But the reality is that higher prices that allow healthy, sustainably-minded businesses to do all the things we’re talking about above and still stay in business are, I think, a good and necessary thing. By contrast, driving prices down at all costs is the exact model that we all say that we want to get away from in the food world. Personally, I think back to what Michael Pollan wrote in a recent essay for the New York Times Sunday Magazine entitled “Unhappy Meals.” Among his principles of healthy eating, number five is “pay more, eat less.” He goes on to explain that:

"The American food system has for a century devoted its energies and policies to increasing quantity and reducing price, not to improving quality. There’s no escaping the fact that better food—measured by taste or nutritional quality (which often correspond)—costs more, because it has been grown or raised less intensively and with more care. Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation. And those of us who can afford to eat well should. Paying more for food well grown in good soils—whether certified organic or not—will contribute not only to your health (by reducing exposure to pesticides) but also to the health of others who might not themselves be able to afford that sort of food: the people who grow it and the people who live

downstream, and downwind, of the farms where it is grown.”

Having worked in the food world for nearly thirty years now I’m still shocked and awed to hear, over and over again, stories of restaurants and retailers that were generally considered to be big successes which, it later turns out, never made any money. Although some of them charged high prices, I find out that they ran cost of goods numbers that simply aren’t viable, yet struggled along for years anyway. Some survived on infusions of cash from corporate parents, wealthy-from-other-work owners or public stock offerings. Others stayed in business, in part, by not paying themselves a salary, either because they didn’t need the income or because there wasn’t any cash to pay it.

To the consumer, of course, these businesses look perfectly healthy. And the prices they charge set a standard that others see as the norm. But the problem is that using these failing businesses as a benchmark is akin to setting your weight target

by looking at fashion magazines. In either case, the model (sorry, pun intended) is not very likely to be sustainable. It survives, maybe even looks glamorous for a bit, but eventually starves and collapses. And, in the process, it leaves the world around it—staff, suppliers, customers and community—worse off than when it first arrived on the scene.

What that means to me on the upside is that we have to have the courage to charge what we need to charge to stay in business in a healthy way. That we have to back that up by delivering great experiences to those we interact with—staff, suppliers, community, shareholders and of course customers. We have to share what we take in with all of those groups, so that everyone gets something positive out of the work that we do in order to create the kind of abundance we’re committed to delivering. We have to back that all up even more by using good business practices, careful costing and effective purchasing, so that we’re not wasting cash that customers contribute to our cause.

To me, that’s the crux of what sustainable business is all about. Staying in business in ways that sustain the lives and livelihoods of the people and the producers of our community. Following are several ways that sustainability manifests itself for us here at Zingerman’s.

CommunityThis is where I started to realize that that panelist-farmer’s model was relevant to a much broader field than just the organic agriculture he was addressing. His explanation and expectation applies perfectly—we want Ann Arbor to be at least as good and hopefully better because of our work than it was when we got here.

This is all part of what’s commonly called “giving back to the community.” On a very tangible level it could mean contributing money, time or information to help those around us. Here at Zingerman’s we focus on assisting people in need, specifically working to fight to reduce hunger in our community. We actively support the arts and education. But we also help the community in the traditional business sense—by keeping jobs in the community and buying from other local businesses we keep our town economically viable and make it a place that other like-minded organizations opt to be a part of.

Leaving the community a better place than we found it is also about somewhat less explicitly stated, but maybe even more important, contributions. I truly believe that by giving great service, by sharing constructive business practices with staff and others, by just being nice to our neighbors, we really do make a difference. Just by staying in business for a long period of time an organization helps build solidity and continuity for the community in which its located.

Staying Put Kinds of Power, James Hillman writes that, “The best way, maybe the only way, to change a situation is to imagine, even

Building a Sustainable BusineSsAn excerpt from Zingerman's co-founder, Ari Weinzweig's upcoming book, Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading: A Lapsed Anarchist's Guide Building a Great Business, due out this fall

­5ISSUE # 221 July-August 2010

­5ISSUE # 220 July-August 2010

to declare that you will stay where you are, in your locale, the rest of your life.” I can’t say that’s the only way to be sustainable, but it certainly makes sense.

A few years ago Ann Arborites unwrapped their afternoon newspapers to find out that the corporate headquarters of one of the largest employers in town had decided to close its local office. The decision came at the cost to the community of over 2000 jobs, a lot of good people, a fair bit of cash and all the other things that go with these sorts of closings. I’m not sure exactly what the implications will be for the community—other urban areas have experienced far worse catastrophes, and I’m confident that the creative and resilient folks who live here will turn this into a positive growth opportunity.

Although I’m saddened by the company’s decision, this is not an evil organization. They gave to the community very actively for years, and were in many ways outstanding corporate citizens. But the reality was that they were a branch of a multi-national corporation, headquartered elsewhere. Inevitably, their decisions gave less weight to community impact than a local business’s would have. Mind you, I’m not saying that a company that finds itself in economic straits should keep a facility open just for the sake of staying open. These are very difficult situations.

The closing reminded me of the importance of sustainability in a community context. This was a company that was wooed here with tax breaks and a whole lot of city support. In many ways this seems akin to organizations—in business, sports or whatever—where huge amounts of money are spent to bring big names in from the outside while those who’ve been contributing all along (and who would likely have stayed rooted for the long haul) are basically ignored.

I’m not criticizing the effort to attract good businesses., but it does make me wonder what might have happened if those incentives had been directed to local businesses or to organizations that had a commitment to commerce and community that extended beyond immediate economic opportunism. In the environmental context an analogy might be forsaking strip mining for the restoration of wetlands or native prairies. By staying in business, we keep jobs in the community, we keep cash flowing through to other local businesses, we keep delivering quality experiences every day. To state the obvious, if we fail, all of that will be lost.

The EnvironmentThis is certainly the most common application of the sustainability concept, and for good reason: it’s critical for

keeping our world intact for future generations. In the years to come, we’ve committed ourselves to do much more with ecologically sound work in food, fuels, carryout containers, and other facets of our everyday operations.

FoodIt won’t be any shock that we apply the idea of “sustainable business” to the food that is our daily business. The more we can demonstrate to people that they really can taste the difference between great foods and the so-so stuff, the more we can prove that most consumers care about quality and are willing to pay what it takes to get it, the more we encourage like-minded businesses to go out and do good things in their communities. Then better off we all are.

There are dozens of sources that enumerate the benefits of local agriculture, traditional farming techniques, sustainable seafood sources and humanely raised and more flavorful meat. The point is that by supporting suppliers who share these values we can build a solid foundation for positive work in the food community. That support can come in the context of cultivating relationships, sharing techniques, paying the higher price that supports the production of sustainable and more flavorful food , sticking with new suppliers when they’re struggling to get going, providing advice and being patient so that we can get to win-win solutions over the long haul.

The People We Work WithThe concept of sustainability can also be applied to the lives of the people who work in our organization, which we hope will be better when they leave us than when they were they arrived. I hope this is true whether their experience of working at Zingerman’s was just a three-week stint at the holidays or twenty-plus years of partnership. In small but meaningful ways we want to offer them a richer, more rewarding experience than they might have had elsewhere. So, if they stay with us for a long time, fantastic. And if they leave to go elsewhere (in or out of the food world), I feel confident that they’ll be able to use the concepts they learned from us to benefit everyone around them in their new home.

How might we make that happen? Well, in part it’s simply by giving our staff the chance to participate in, and contribute to, a sustainable business. By living (imperfectly though we do) our guiding principles, treating others with care and consideration, and being actively committed to the success of all those around us. By demonstrating every day that, though it can be hard to do good work and draining when you’re in the middle of doing it, it’s a good kind of hard! By helping people see that contrary to common wisdom work can actually be something you look forward to, not something you try to get out of.

I also think we impact people’s lives through the use of the “organizational recipes” I’ve shared with you—systemic approaches that help each of us be more successful in our work. Having employed them for many years now there’s no doubt in my mind that by simply teaching and modeling ways to run constructive meetings, effectively manage money, resolve conflicts, give great service, appreciate the wonderful nuances of food and life, we make work and life better for everyone who works here. Whether they use this stuff at home, in managing their personal finance, at a non-profit they volunteer for or in their next job, all these techniques can be of benefit.

We also want to provide benefits in the more conventional sense of the term, and at a level that helps people lead productive lives: health care, staff discounts, employee assistance programs, flex time, creative non-financial benefits, child care, scholarships, and so on. None of these are terribly original to us, but they really do make a difference in helping people manage their lives. In the end, I think people feel better about, and more at peace with, themselves. And that in turn makes for a more peaceful world for all of us to live in.

Balancing the Near Term with Long TermMuch of life in the big business and political worlds seems to be about responding to immediate pressures, about delivering short-term results at a negative cost that comes due much later. But I think we can achieve short-term sustainability—i.e., we can stay in business—while also creating long term benefits for all involved. The two will always be in conflict to some degree, but the point of business sustainability is to embrace the struggle and find ways to achieve both!

We as businesspeople need to use our power and authority wisely and judiciously, in much the same way that sustainable producers limit their inputs. We need to stay true to our

values, not just react to market pressures. And we need to be respectful of what nature has given us while still shaping a path of our own choosing. It’s impractical stuff. Despite the “wisdom” of agribusiness experts, farmers who do a good job of raising sustainable crops are very much able to succeed financially while maintaining their values and supporting their communities. We can do the same.

\

Building a Sustainable BusineSs

Find out more about Zingerman's approach to building

a sustainable business at The Zingerman's

experience seminarOct 18-19, 2010 • Mar 21-22, 2011

This is the seminar most highly recommended as a first-time seminar, for start-ups and existing businesses looking for the next level of greatness. We guarantee that you’ll finish the two days with an array of hands-on tools to help you put your new ideas into practice.

By the end of this seminar, participants will:

1. Have new tools for implementing positive changes in their own business.

2. Develop a network of peers within the specialty foods industry and beyond.

3. Have sampled the “chef’s tasting menu” of organizational life within the ZCoB, including our food, our approach to service, open book finance, our leadership philosophy and our staff.

Cost is $975 person and includes tuitions, instructional materials, plenty of product sampling, breakfast and lunch.

An excerpt from Zingerman's co-founder, Ari Weinzweig's upcoming book, Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading: A Lapsed Anarchist's Guide Building a Great Business, due out this fall

For­more­information­or­to­register­­call­734.930.1919­or­visit­us­at­www.zingtrain.com

ISSUE # 221 ­6

July-August 2010

You’ve­already­been­out­at­work­in­your­garden/farm­for­many­months­now.­Are­you­excited­about­the­harvesting­work­ahead­for­the­summer? Incredibly excited about what might come. I’m eager to see if what we learned and changed from last year will work out. And we’ll see which of our tests will work and which won’t. I don’t know what learnings we have in store, but it sure is exciting to find out.

Most­chefs­have­a­passion­for­cooking­but­few­are­actually­out­in­the­fields­growing­their­own.­What­originally­got­you­so­excited­about­doing­your­own­growing?

It started as a hobby, but what got me hooked was when one day I had hand dug some “grabbling” potatoes (early potatoes stolen by reaching your hands into the hill) that I brought in and put on a dinner special. That night some regular diners were at the Roadhouse and I was explaining to them the special that they’d ordered and really, really enjoyed. What I learned was that the rewards that many of us become chefs for, which is the gratitude and joy you receive when someone really enjoys your food, was greatly increased by having labored so hard to grow the food as well as dig it up, and then get to prepare it. It definitely gave me goose bumps.

What­did­we­grow­the­first­year? It’s funny. In hindsight, years ago knew that I wanted to buy a farm and I don’t

know really know that I knew why. This is long before we had one. I just knew that I wanted one. Partly I suppose it was some “male” thing—I wanted to own ‘my plot of land,’ and be able to say, ’That’s mine!” I grew 31 varieties of tomatoes that I bought from Seed Savers. Some potatoes. Some cukes. That was the bulk of it. It was literally just to have something to do on my day off. I needed something to do on my day off so I wouldn’t go crazy. I decided to double dig that patch at my house. It was completely crazy. I hadn’t even finished double digging the whole plot but the tomatoes had to go in the ground. So I just planted them even though I hadn’t finished preparing the plot—I just planted what I had prepared. It was 75 feet square—14 rows of total garden.

How­are­you­feeling­about­vegetables­now­as­compared­to­when­we­opened­the­Roadhouse­in­2003?­

I think what I’m realizing more in the last year is that all the learnings about what makes full flavored food and complex flavors is relative to the length of of time that they grow and what they eat. So my gut was telling me several years ago that hybrids and the more modern high-producing varieties of produce are less flavorful. The broccoli that produces this huge head in a

month may look great but the one that takes three months and may not look all that great usually tastes a lot better. They’re subtle differences, but when they’re full flavored they have subtle complexities that make a big difference. It goes back to my learnings around cooking. Most chefs spend a lifetime learning how to make inferior food taste good. And then you come to the Roadhouse and it takes several years for someone to stop trying to overcompensate.

People who eat here comment about this dish or that dish. They’ll ask, "What did you do to it?" And the answer is usually “just salt, pepper and olive oil."

What­are­some­of­the­most­intriguing­things­you’ve­planted­­this­year?­

Hungarian red peppers bred especially for making our pimento cheese at the Roadhouse. German butter potatoes for special hash browns, and we have a few surprises to come as well. The Mandan Bride corn which we’ll be field drying, hand harvesting, and stone grinding will be interesting to taste.

What­do­July­and­August­look­like­in­terms­of­­fresh­produce­arriving?­

If all things go well, we’ll see our first tomatoes in mid-July, new potatoes, young carrots, beets, cucumbers, peas & beans.

Do­you­get­help­from­your­kids? Very much so. We have an annual tradition of them taking the day after Memorial Day off of school to do a bunch of planting, They help regularly through the sum-mer as well.

Tell­us­about­the­Harvest­Dinners. We’ll see how the crops develop but it will be a menu of some seasonal seafood and local meat accompanying everything from our garden. Maybe 20 or so vari-eties of heirloom tomatoes, plus all sorts of heirloom carrots, potatoes, beets, greens, and all sorts of other good stuff!

What­else­are­we­forgetting­to­ask­you? We’re excited about saving seeds this year and participating in exchanging seeds with other people who care.

What­happens­to­the­produce­you­pick?­How­can­people­know­where­it­is­on­the­menu? It all comes to the restaurant and makes it on the specials menu. It will always be denoted as to specific farm origin.

Zingerman's­co-founder­Ari­Weinzweig­interviews­Roadhouse­Chef­and­Managing­Partner­Alex­Young­about­what's­sprouting­up­at­­Cornman­Farms

Celebrate­the­Summer­with­Cornman­Farms­Harvest­Dinners!Our­Most­Popular­Annual­Event.­.­.times­four!My inspiration for developing Cornman Farms came on a summer night a few years ago when I served up some potatoes that I'd grown in my back yard to a few guests at the Roadhouse and saw the pleasure they took in eating them. It gave me goosebumps. We've been growing more and more every year (we're up to 6 acres at the farm) and that plate of potatoes soon became our annual Harvest dinner. Now, with so much great food that we're growing just down the road from the restaurant (the farm is in Dexter, 8 miles from the Roadhouse), we've turned one annual dinner into four. We open the patio up and serve it buffet style and it has really become a special commu-nity gathering of fresh produce and breaking bread with the folks who grow it.

Cornman­Farms­Early­Harvest­DinnerTues., July 27 • 7pm • $45/dinner This dinner celebrates the earliest harvest including first-of-the-season tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, spring carrots, new potatoes and even turnips.

SAVE THE DaTEs!Harvest­Dinner­#2:­Heirloom­Tomatoes­Wed, Aug 18 • 7pm • $45/dinner

Harvest­Dinner­#3:­Fall's­BountyTue, Sept 14 • 7pm • $45/dinner

Harvest­Dinner­#4:­Preserving­the­Harvest­ Tues, Nov 9 • 7pm • $45/dinner

Hurry!­These­always­sell­out­weeks­

ahead­of­time.­Call­734.663.FOOD­(3663)­

to­save­your­spot.

­7ISSUE # 221 July-August 2010

MARKETTHURSDAYS

ZINGERMAN’SROADHOUSE

WESTGATE MALL

W E S T S I D E FA R M E R S

2010

JUNE 3 TO SEPT 30FROM 3 TO 7 PM

PARKING LOT

AT T H E C O R N E R O F J A C K S O N A N D M A P L E R O A D S

2501 Jackson Ave. or call 734.663.3663 (FOOD) www.zingermansroadhouse.com

July 7 Dave Boutette

July 14 John Latini

July 21 Royal Garden Trio

July 28 Annie & Rod Capps

Aug 4 Noteworthy Band

Aug 11 John Dobat

Aug 18 Tracy Kash Thomas

Aug 25 Sari Brown

Sept 1 Bull Halsey

Sept 8 Lori & Bill Cowan

Sept 15 Jon Milan & the Brakemen

Sept 22 Corndaddy

Sept 29 Lady Sunshine & the X Band

7th Annual Taste of TantréThursday August 19, 6-9 PM • Big Top Tent •$40/partyThis is the culinary event of the summer! For the 7th year in a row we are invit-ing local food lovers to help us complete the farm-to-table circle and enjoy the best food of the season elbow-to-elbow with the people who grew it – the folks from Tantré Farm.

The details of the multi-course meal remain secret until the last moment, since Chef Rodger and his kitchen crew hand-select most of the fresh ingredients the morning of the feast! But when you take your seats and see what they’ve pre-pared, your mouth will water and your pulse will quicken. Each year the menu is more inspired and more perfectly tuned to the season.

The folks at Tantré Farm work hard year-round to produce an amazing variety of organic fruits and vegetables for the Deli. This meal is our way of saying “thank you” the best way we know how – with a feast prepared to highlight their fantas-tic offerings. This evening is always an early sell-out. Sign up now!

Piazza Zingermanza 2010Saturday and Sunday August 14 and 15Italian Street Fair, Free11am -3pm Our annual August tradition of trans-forming the Deli’s patio into an Italian street food fest is one of the highlights of the year. Come and and watch as we cut those 80# wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese into approachable chunks. Witness as we turn curd into delectably soft balls of mozzarella. Get your fix of Proscuitto – sliced to order. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves, but they’re all firmly rooted in the Italian gastronomic tradition. It’s an event not to be missed!

Special July Treat at Zingerman's Deli!­­“Zingerman’s Brownie & Gelato Sundae”If summer were a dessert, this would be it! Your choice of Bakehouse brown-ie topped with any flavor of Zingerman’s Creamery gelato, real vanilla whipped cream, chocolate syrup and a sprinkle of chocolate shav-ings.

Mini Me ($5.99), Syd’s Sundae ($7.99)

Summer­Eating­at

ISSUE # 221 ­8

July-August 2010

Our­wedding­cake­calendar­is­filling­up­but­there's­still­time­to­get­a­cake­that­tastes­as­great­as­it­looks!

Call­Zingerman's­Bakehouse­at­734.761.7255­­to­set­up­a­consultation­(with­lots­of­samples­­to­taste)­with­one­of­our­cake­artists.­

-­Amy­Emberling,­Bakehouse­managing­partner,­­lover­of­all­things­cake

As both an employee and a bride-to-be planning my wedding with Zingerman’s Catering, I’ve learned a lot about saving stress while planning a unique and unforgettable party.

Here are my favorites tips for newly engaged couples out there:

•­Find­a­great­planner. Terra Brock, one of the event planners here at Zingerman’s Catering, is our party guru. Her wisdom and expertise keeps me from fretting about the details. I love knowing she’ll be there on the big day, running the show.

•­Don’t­forget­what­your­guests­like­to­eat. At first, we thought our rustic barn wedding would be perfect for a Grilling menu, with chili lime chicken and Usinger sausage. Then I remembered that my future mother in law is a vegetarian. We switched the menu to feature a really fantastic vegetarian entrée, Jamal’s Eggplant Lasagna.

•­Think­about­alternatives­to­traditional­wedding­cake. We love cake, so we wanted as many varieties of cake as possible. Instead of a classic tiered cake, Stephanie at the Bakehouse helped us design a cake buffet, with six nine inch round cakes and a single two tiered cake for us to cut. They look stylish and cohesive, and we get to pick 8 different flavors!

•­ Don’t­ bring­ too­ many­ people­ to­ your­­wedding­tasting. As we see on Say Yes to the Dress, you don’t want too many opinions at once. Tastings work best if they’re just you and your partner – leave the in-laws at home if you can. If you love the menu, your guests will too.

•­It­takes­a­long­time­to­cut­a­cake. Consider cutting the cake before you serve dinner. It’ll give the staff plenty of time to cut and serve the cake, creating a seamless transition from dinner to dessert.

•­Do­what­you­want. The day really belongs to you and your partner. If you want barbecue and line dancing, do it. If you want wedding pie, have wedding pie. Just tell your planner your vision – they have the wisdom and expe-rience to make it happen.

Cake ‘n Context – Presenting with StyleCreating a custom cake can be lots of fun and very absorbing. During the process of ordering guests often become caught up in the details of the design, choices of colors and the all important choice of flavor. What we commonly forget to consider is the presentation of the cake on the big day. The final presentation can make a big difference – turning a simple cake into a gorgeous one and a show stopper into a bit of a let down! Three important questions to consider regarding the presentation are:

1. How big is the event space and will the cake stand out or be lost? If it will be lost you can place the cake on a pedestal, a stand, or a riser covered in fabric to give the cake more height.

2. What size table would be best? For extra special occasions like weddings the cake is often put on a separate table. All too often this table is too large in diameter and too low making the cake look in-significant. If you want your cake to stand out try a cocktail table at least 36 inches high and not more than 36 inches in diameter. Think of the cake like a piece of sculpture in a museum and choose the ap-propriate display table.

3. Would the cake table benefit from a little “staging?” Decorate the table to really capture your guests' attention. Sometimes a cake can be enhanced with appropriate props, like candles, flowers and beads. And don't forget a matching tablecloth – it really makes a big difference.

Sicily: The Hidden Island This trip is designed for experienced travelers with a passion for traditionally made foods. We keep the group small. Only 18 guests traveling with two experienced leaders from Zingerman’s, plus our English-speaking Ital-ian guide. Our guide will translate during our visits to the food makers. We will visit excellent, traditional Sicil-ian restaurants, and at our meals together you will enjoy a set menu of local specialties made from local, fresh, in-season ingredients and a local wine pairing.

Join us to take a behind the scene visits to incredible, small scale Sicilian food makers. We will visit a hundred year-old chocolate maker in Modica. A traditional cheesemaker in Ragusa. A producer of fabulous dessert wines in the storied winemaking region of Marsala. A fantastic traditional olive oil producer in Castelvetrano. We will accompany a Sicilian chef on a trip to the market, followed by a hands-on cooking class with him as we prepare a multi-course traditional Sicilian meal together.

The cost of this Zingerman’s Food Tour is $4,500 per person and includes accommodations at 4-star hotels, breakfast each morning and most lunch and dinners consisting of local specialties from local, fresh ingredients and local wine pairings. Also included in the trip is transfer to and from the airport, an air-conditioned private bus for the entire tour and basic medical coverage.

Zingerman’s Food Tours are run by Jillian, Toni, Elph, and Tom, and we are part of the Zingerman’s Mail Order company, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. We love what we do! And we love to share wonderful experiences and fabulous food, people and places with our guests. At least two of us are on every tour, to be there for our guests at all times and make sure that each tour is fantastic!

Zingerman's­ Food­ Tour­ of­ Sicily,­ Italy,­ is­ October­ 3-12,­ 2010.­­

Cost­ is­ $4500­ per­ person­ and­ space­ is­ extremely­ limited.­Adventur-

ous food lovers are encouraged to visit­ www.zingermansfoodtours.

com­for additional details and to register.­For more information, call us at­­

888-316-2736­or­email­foodtours@zingermans.com

Five­Things­That­Make­Zingerman's­Food­Tours­So­Special:- Eat great local food

- Meet the producers

- Visit places you can't get to on your own

- Enjoy the small size of the group

- Know that Zingerman's Food Tour staff will be on every tour, along with an experienced local guide

Jane’s Top Tips for WeDding PlanNing BliSs

Book­your­special­event­now!­Call­734.663.3400­to­get­started.­

FOOD TOURS

­9ISSUE # 221 July-August 2010­9

If you're wondering whether the bacon craze will ever fade, after a day eating and learning about the food at Zingerman's Camp Bacon, I'd say the answer is "no." Well, maybe that's not entirely accurate. A better answer is that though bacon may be getting a lot of hype these days, there's a deeper current of interest running underneath all the mainstream press that bacon is getting.

Take Keith and Angie Ewing from Texas. When we announced that we were bringing some of the best people in the cured pork world together in Ann Arbor for Camp Bacon, they decided to make the long drive to Michigan for the chance to share a meal and learn the business of bacon from the likes of Allan Benton, Herb Eckhouse (who guided guests through a hands-on pancetta curing class) and all the other amazing people who joined us throughout the day. I don't think a fad inspires that kind of devotion. But, this event was, in equal parts, about the food and about the people there (guests and presenters and staff). Allan Benton, maker of Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams (along with one of the most highly regarded ba-con's in the country), spoke about his childhood in Tennessee and the ex-perience of growing up in a very poor household where most of the food was raised (and, in the case of pork, cured) on the property. Early on in his professional life as a curer, Allan was struggling to compete with larger operations that sacrificed taste for efficiency and profit. He told his father he was thinking of cutting some corners to make himself more competitive, and his father cautioned him against it. "When you play the other man's game, you always lose. Stick with what you know." Allan did, and everyone who loves the taste of bacon (and ham) they way it was made on his par-ents' and his grandparents' farm is the better for it.

If you think you can't cook, you owe it to yourself to see Molly Stevens run a cooking class. There's no pretense and there are no tricks but there is a lot of food flying (it was nice to know that being perfectly prim and neat like they are on a lot of the television cooking shows isn't a prerequisite for preparing great food). And, Molly gets beyond the recipe to tell you what she's really doing. "In most cookbooks, there are mistakes in about 80% of the recipes. If you can understand what the recipe is trying to tell you to

do instead of just doing exactly what it says, you can spot the recipe's er-rors before you make them." If book sales are a testament to her skill as a teacher then she's flat out amazing. Guests scooped up 20 copies of her James Beard Award-winning book All About Braising before we were even done with lunch.

There's not enough space here to tell you in detail all the great things that happened that day, from Sharon and Meghan Meehan's moving story about a young woman trying to get a loan to start a small business selling the hams she grew up loving to Nick Spencer's hilarious dissection of the dif-ferences between British and American attitudes towards bacon (and beer and sports and a lot of other things) to Meghan Dorsch's life-changing ca-reer choice as a young woman—go to work for Nueske's or get a job on a ginseng farm—to the poetry of Meg Noori (in Ojibwe by the way), Ian Mays and Tung-hui Hu, to a talk on bacon history from the distinguished Jan Lon-gone at the Longone Culinary Archive at the UM Library to Ari's own story of growing up to live bacon after a childhood in a kosher home, the pre-sentations were heartfelt and, more importantly, made it clear what goes into bacon-making and business building when it's done by folks who really love what they do and really want the food they make to taste good.

So, yes, bacon might a flash in the pan in some circles but not with this crowd. For the folks at Camp Bacon, who had the chance to taste great bacons with the people who make and to hear the stories of how those bacons came to be, bacon is pretty clearly a culinary touchstone and not the latest thing they're "into." As Ari mentioned in his opening remarks, the aim of the day was to help elevate bacon to it's rightful status. People might say they "like bacon" but they don't just say the "like wine." They're partial to Pinots or big on Bordeaux. So, with the first annual Camp Bacon in the books, we're hoping guests go home and say "I like Nueske's with my eggs but Benton's to season my vegetables and Arkansas Long Pepper on a BLT."

We're already making plans for next year. Anyone up for a pig roast?

a dispatch from our First AnNual bacon celebration

1.­What­ZingTrain­seminar­teaches­participants­the­­

­"Open­Book"­system___________________________________

2.­July­is­American­food­month­at­the­Deli­and­peanut­butter­is­a­great­

American­food.­What's­our­favorite­Grand­Rapids­based­peanut­butter?

___________________________________

3.­What­three­Zingerman's­retail­businesses­will­you­find­at­­

"Zingerman's­Southside"

___________________________________

4.­What's­the­name­of­a­homegrown­farm­that­Roadhouse­Chef­Alex­Young­gets­much­of­his­summer­produce­from?­

___________________________________

PASspORT

Zingerman's­Delicatessen­(422­Detroit­Street)

Zingerman's­Roadhouse­(2501­Jackson­Road)

Zingerman's­Bakehouse­(3711­Plaza­Drive)

Zingerman's­Creamery­(3723­Plaza­Drive)

Zingerman's­Coffee­Company­(3723­Plaza­Drive)

Your­email­address­to­get­on­zingermans.com­eNews­list!

Get­your­passport­signed­at­every­businessand­don't­forget­to­sign­up­for­Zingerman's­enews!Signatures

Take the Tour de Food!

Shirts­are­available­to­folks­who've­completed­the­ZCoB­­Tour­de­Food­in­a­single­day­and­for­only­as­long­as­we­have­'em.­­Get­on­the­road­today­before­they're­all­gone!­Limit one per person.

a day in the land of a 1000 flavors

idid

the

Visit­all­five­Zingerman's­retail­outlets­in­one­day­fill­out­the­passport­below­and­get­a­free,­

limited­edition­Zingerman's­t-shirt!

A map to the Zingerman's Community of Businesses is available

at any of our locations!

Available at all Zingerman's locations and zingermans.com

Everything's Better with Bacon Tasting

Wednesday, July 7 • 7-9pm$30 in advance / $35 at the door

at Zingerman's DeliCall 734.663.3663 to save a seat!

Everything's Better with Bacon Dinner

Wed., July 14 • 7pm • $45/dinner at Zingerman's Roadhouse

Call all 734.663.3400 for reservations

ISSUE # 221 ­10

July-August 2010

JulyFresh Goat CheeseThis cheese has a light, fluffy texture, and a cool creamy, fesh flavor. Spread it on toast-ed bagels or caraway rye or just it mix with honey and eat by the spoonful. It's ideal for stuffing pasta or as a topping for already sauced pasta. Bake it into a goat cheese and tomato tart. Any way you eat it, enjoy!

$13.99/lb. $10.99 lb.

Augustsharon hollowFresh, hand-ladled cheese layered with pepper or fresh herbs. Available in Telicherry black pepper and garlic, or gar-lic and freshly-chopped chive. Crisp, clean, milky flavor accented by the flavor of the herbs.

$6.99 lb. $4.99 lb.

JulyProud to be an American (Cheese!)Sunday, July 18 4pm • $25We'll taste some of the best cheeses our country has to offer as we learn all about the history of artisan cheesemaking in the USA—its beginnings, its decline, and its amazing renais-sance over the last few decades (and where our own little Creamery fits in). Learn (and taste!) why this is such an exciting time for cheesemaking and cheese-eating in America

August MozZarelLa-HeirloOm TomatO SumMer Celebration!Sunday, August 15 4pm • $25 Join us as we feast on mozzarella treats of all sorts, from bocconcini with harissa to bur-rata drizzled in olive oil, and learn about the history of mozzarella and many variations on our most beloved late summer cheese.

Creamery Specials!Available ONLY at the Creamery cheese shop at 3723 Plaza Drive.

Creamery TastingsCome down to the Creamery Cheese Shop on Plaza Drive and enjoy a special monthly tasting with the folks who make our American Cheese Society award-winning cheese. It's a great way to share fresh cheese with fellow cheese lovers and learn about the cheesemaking process. Call 734.929.0500 to reserve your spot!

Roaster's Pick

Farmer's Market Schedule

Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market Kerrytown • Saturdays through October and Wednesdays, May-Sept. • 7am-3pm.

Westside Farmers Market Roadhouse Parking Lot, 2501 Jackson Rd. Thursdays May- Oct. • 3-7pm.

Ypsilanti Downtown Farmer’s Market Corner of Michigan Ave. and Hamilton Tuesdays 2-6pm.

Detroit's Eastern MarketSaturdays, 7am-3pm

Fresh Cheese - straight from the Cheesemaker!

Home Espresso Machine Clinic Saturday, July 24th from 10am to pm • FREE!Do you have an espresso machine at home that is sitting unused on a shelf? We can help you make better espres-so with it. Our customers frequently ask us why our espresso is so different than what they make at home.

Well, bring your machine in and we'll work with you get the most out of it! We'll go over operation, the importance of the right grind, machine maintenance and taste testing!

Call 734.929.6060 for information or reservations.

Cold drinks at the hot Southside!Step out of the heat and into Zingerman’s Coffee Company for such cool refreshments including

• Cold brew coffee!• Iced lattes!• Loose leaf iced tea from Rishi tea! • homemade lemonade!

July Mysore NugGets(OsSOor EsTatES)This crop is the best Indian coffee we've had in 5 years. It has a wonderfully rich body, hints of sweet and warming spices (think cardamom), and a long clean finish.

August

Costa Rica TerrazuLight lemony citrus and notes of honey.At the time this newsletter was going to print, we were busy sampling the best of the best lots we could find. Stop by and see the result!

TM

“Second Saturday” Tasting! July 10 and August 14 • 11 am-noon • Free!

Join us monthly for an open-to-the-public, no-reservation-required cupping. Zingerman's Coffee Company managing partners Allen and Steve give a tour of the operation, sam-

ple new arrivals with guests, and explore the world of coffee from seed to cup.

3723 Plaza Dr. • 734.929.6060www.zingermans.com

­11ISSUE # 221 July-August 2010

Cranberry Pecan Breadevery weekend in July!It's like Christmas in July! Bread fans every-where wait all year long for this bread! When we sample it, there's a phenomenon of customers who grab a piece as they're leaving and come back a few minutes later asking "what did i just eat? that's amazing!." This bread is a magic combination of our San Francisco Sourdough, toasty pecans, and dried New England cranberries. Get your fill and stock the freezer; this bread won't be back until November!

Peppered Bacon Farm 8/6 & 8/7Everything is better with bacon right? We think so. Check out applewood smoked bacon and black pepper in a crusty loaf of our signature farm bread. Our most popular special bake!

Black Olive Farm 8/13 & 8/14A crusty round of our signature farm bread studded with marinated black Kalamata olives from Greece. If there's any left, turn it in to savory bread crumbs for a twist on eggplant parmesan.

Loomis Bread 8/20 & 8/21Tangy farm bread with chunks of Zingerman's Creamery Cheshire cheese (created by Creamery partner John Loomis) and roasted red peppers from Cornman Farms in Dexter, MI. A Zingerman's exclusive!

Green Olive Paesano 8/27 & 8/28 A chewy loaf of cornmeal crusted Paesano bread with savory green olives. Just slice it up for an instant appetizer.

Call ahead to order your special loaves from: Bakeshop—3711 Plaza Dr. • 761.2095

Deli—422 Detroit St. • 663.DELIRoadshow—2501 Jackson Rd. • 663.FOOD

Most of our Special Bakes are available for shipping at www.zingermans.com or

888.636.8162

We have made some great specialty breads over the years that developed their own small followings, so we bring them back for a weekend here and there just for fun. If you’re look-ing for a little bread adventure check out this calendar.

Sourdough$4.50/1.5 lb. loaf (regular $6.99)Good enough to ship back to California. Crisp, crackly crust, moist honeycombed interior and the trademark sour tang that will tickle your tongue.

sicIlian sEsame semolina bread$4.50/1.5 lb. loaf (regular $6.25)The bread to seize the imagination of sesame seed lovers everywhere - the entire loaf is rolled in unhulled sesame seeds. Golden color, great taste. Made with semolina and durum flour. We've found it's best when toasted, grilled, or heated in the oven.

July

ButTermilk cakeThe quintessential birthday cake. A dense buttery yellow cake filled with raspberry but-tercream and covered in smooth vanilla swiss buttercream. Available in 6" and 9" rounds or sheet cakes.

August HumMingbird cakeWhen Zingerman's Roadhouse opened we were inspired to introduce many old time American favorites. Hummingbird cake is one of them. A traditional southern cake with toasted coconut, fresh bananas, toast-ed pecans and pineapple covered in cream cheese frosting. Available in 6" and 9" rounds or sheet cakes.

20% OFF Whole cakes of the month and

slices at the Bakehouse or Deli Next Door coffee shop!

Fall Bake-cation Weekends!Our BAKE-cations are the ultimate experience for the home baker! We guide you through a comprehensive education in bread and pastry techniques in a fun, exciting, relaxed and always hands-on classroom full of good humor and expert instruction. We feature both week-long and weekend BAKE-cations that include breakfast and lunch everyday, and we promise that you'll need to bring along an empty suitcase to bring home all the great stuff you've made. You'll leave BAKE! with several tested recipes, the knowl-

edge to recreate them at home, a full stomach and loads of bread you made in class.

BreadSep 25-26 • 8am-5pm • $500An intensive weekend of baking some of our favor-ite breads: hand-rolled french baguettes, paesano, french country bread made with flour from local Westwind Mill, porter rye, braided challah, German soft pretzels, flat bread, and our famous Jewish rye. Includes breakfast and lunch each day too! While you're here enjoy the great restaurants, farmer's markets and theaters Ann Arbor has to offer.

PastryOct 16-17 • 8am-5pm • $500Hurry–sells out fast! Join us for an action packed two-day baking getaway. We'll make our favorite pastries including scones, pies, cinnamon rolls, croissants, angel food cake and pound cake. Also includes breakfast and lunch each day. While you're here enjoy the great restaurants, farmer's markets and theaters Ann Arbor has to offer.

Midwest Living calls the BAKE-cation One of 10 Trips You'll Talk About: “The program is a chocolate-dipped, cream-filled opportunity to learn from the best.”

Want a nibble instead of a whole bar?Try the variety bag of mini Zingerman’s hand-made candy bars in three flavors – Zzang! Original, Ca$hew Cow and What the Fudge?

Available at Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Delicatessen. Check us out online at www.zingermanscandy.com.

3711Plaza Dr. • Ann Arbor, MI • 734.761.2095 • www.zingermansbakehouse.com

"They [Zzang! bars] remind me of the 1930s bars that werehand-made, slab style with candy love. Although I never tasted a bar from that era, this is what I believe they would be."—Beth Kimmerle, author of The History of Candy